Theresa May has refused to rule out an income tax rise, despite senior ministers pledging there will be "absolutely" no increase for higher earners.

The Prime Minister declined to guarantee income tax would not rise despite promises to voters from her Foreign Secretary and Defence Secretary.

When asked to clarify the commitment from Boris Johnson and Sir Michael Fallon during her visit to Dewsbury on Saturday morning, Mrs May said only that the Conservatives were the "low tax party".

She said: "Our position on tax has not changed. We have set it out in the manifesto.

"What people will know when they go to vote on Thursday is that it is the Conservative Party that always has been and always will be the low tax party and it is our firm intention to reduce taxes for ordinary working families."

Image:Boris Johnson and Sir Michael Fallon have both made pledges on income tax

Sir Michael Fallon had ruled out income tax increases for higher earners in an interview with a newspaper, published on Saturday morning.

He said the Tories were not in the "business of punishing people for getting on" as he made a bid to get wealthier voters to the polling stations on Thursday.

Image:Theresa May with William Hague during an election campaign visit to a garden centre in Yorkshire on Saturday.

His comments were the first to explicitly rule out an income tax increase for higher earners.

In their manifesto, the Conservatives scrapped their triple lock pledge not to raise income tax, VAT and national insurance contributions.

They committed to keep income tax "as low as possible" but did not rule out a hike.

However, asked if higher earners could be confident a Conservative government would not increase income tax, Sir Michael told The Daily Telegraph: "Yes. You've seen our record. We're not in the business of punishing people for getting on, on the contrary we want people to keep more of their earnings.

"The only way they can be sure their taxes won't rise is to vote Conservative. We already know your tax will go up if you vote Labour on Thursday."

On Friday night, Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, also ruled out increases to income tax, telling BBC's Newsnight that the party had "absolutely no plans" to do so.

Mrs May also refused to be drawn on whether the government would increase the National Insurance contributions for self-employed people.

Labour's plans would see the 45p rate of income tax kick in for people earning £80,000 instead of the current £150,000 and a new 50p rate for people earning more than £123,000.

Jeremy Corbyn accused the Conservatives of being in "chaos" over their tax plans.

Speaking on the campaign trail in Lincoln, he said: "I think there's complete chaos going on at the top of the Government.

"One minister says they're going to give no more tax rises indeed possibly tax reductions for the very wealthiest, then they can't answer the question about tax rises for the rest of the population, then they can't answer the questions about funding social care."

Campaigning in South Thanet, former UKIP leader Nigel Farage said the Conservatives had lost control of the campaign.